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Rainbow Bridge

noun

  1. a natural stone bridge in S Utah: a national monument. 290 feet (88 meters) high; 275 feet (84 meters) span.


Rainbow Bridge

noun

  1. a natural stone bridge over a creek in SE Utah. Height: 94 m (309 ft). Span: 85 m (278 ft)
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

She “crossed the rainbow bridge” on Friday, her owner Atsuko Sato said on social media, adding that she died without suffering, and as Ms. Sato was petting her.

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The gods had no rainbow bridge to parade across as they entered Valhalla at the end, just the organ pipes magisterially seen through the hangings.

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When reporting on a deadly car accident at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing at the end of last month, network personalities and guests alleged or speculated at least 97 times that the crash was an act of terrorism.

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If you’ve had pets or spent any time around people with pets, you’ve probably heard of the Rainbow Bridge: an imaginary meadow where our pets go after they die, released from all sickness, injury, and pain.

From

He conducted a survey about attitudes on the Rainbow Bridge concept, which was published in the Journal for the Study of Religious Experience, and found that people are “sticking it into whatever else they believe.”

From

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More About Rainbow Bridge

else does Rainbow Bridge mean?

Just this side of heaven, some believe, is a place called Rainbow Bridge, a place where pets go after they die. Rainbow Bridge is used as a term for “pet heaven.”

How is Rainbow Bridge pronounced?

[ reyn-boh brij ]

are other forms of Rainbow Bridge?

rainbow bridge

Where does Rainbow Bridge come from?

The Rainbow Bridge comes from a vignette written by an unknown author in the 1980s. It tells the story of a beautiful place with a rainbow bridge to heaven. After death, pets go to this place and are restored to perfect health. They have endless food and water, and remain there until their owner dies. When this happens, pets and owners are reunited and travel along the Rainbow Bridge together into heaven.

Over the years, three people have claimed to have created the Rainbow Bridge. Paul C. Dahm, who owns a copyright on a version of the poem, says he wrote the original prose poem in 1981. He also published a 1998 book entitled Rainbow Bridge.

Wallace Sife says his poem “All Pets Go to Heaven” is the real origin of the Rainbow Bridge and included it in his 2005 book, The Loss of a Pet. William Britton published a book that contains the poem, his 1994 Legend of Rainbow Bridge.

Regardless of who actually wrote the story, the Rainbow Bridge has provided comfort to an untold number of grieving pet owners. Members of pet-related internet groups have been quoting versions of the story since at least the early 1990s.

How is Rainbow Bridge used in real life?

The Rainbow Bridge is a comforting story and concept shared among pet owners during bereavement. It is used as a stand-in for an afterlife for pets, and pets are spoken of as “crossing over” as a metaphor for going to heaven—and as a euphemism for dying.

Artist renderings of the Rainbow Bridge are also popular ways to cope with grief.

More examples of Rainbow Bridge:

“I know that profuse pain personally, having seen two cats and four dogs, all Boxers, cross over the Rainbow Bridge over the last 12 years or so.”

George Diaz, Orlando Sentinel, September 2018

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